Yeah, I knew I shouldn’t have been thinking about James’ wifein that way. But I didn’t feel like chastising myself right now. And I couldn’tsit there and deny that she was hot. Gorgeous with a whole lot of crazycurrently directed at me.
“Stop it,” I said.
“Stop what?” she asked. But her smile didn’t disappear. Ifanything, it grew.
“Stop staring at me like you’re about to do something weird.”
Penny laughed. “I’m not doing anything weird. You cameto me for help.” She rubbed her hands together in evil joy. “So whatdating app were you thinking? I’m a little out of my depth here. James and Imet before this whole online dating thing had gotten popular. I never got toexperience any of that.”
“I thought you said you knew what you were doing.”
“I do.” She laughed. “Forget everything I just said. I’m avery skilled matchmaker. You came to exactly the right place. And I know whichapp I want to use. I saw a commercial the other day about compatibility andpercentages. Apparently true love…”
True love? Give me a break. “Yeah, I’m out,” I jokedand pretended to start to stand up. But I wasn’t going anywhere. Joking aroundwith her was one of my favorite things.
“Matt.” She caught my arm and I tried to ignore the sparkthat her touch ignited on my skin. Again. It kept happening. And Iwanted to pretend it was nothing. But it didn’t feel like nothing to me. It hadbeen a long time since I’d felt something like that. A really long time. It wasone of the reasons I’d come over here like an idiot, pretending to ask for herhelp.
But she felt it too, right? My eyes locked with hers. We bothstood frozen for just a few seconds.
I wanted to kiss her. I ran through the consequences in myhead. James would hate me. Despite years of trying to forget how much he’dfucked up my relationship with Brooklyn, a part of me still hated him. So Ididn’t really care about that. Our friendship was built on a foundation ofrotten wood. It was doomed to collapse eventually. But if I kissed James’ wife,Rob would never forgive me either. He’d choose his brother over his bestfriend. Worst of all, my brother, Mason, wouldn’t even have my back on thisone. There’d be nothing he could say to defend me. I was crossing too manylines. I’d lose everything. But what did I really have anyway? Some half assfriends that pretended the past meant nothing when I was fucking drowning everyday? They didn’t understand. They didn’t even care.
I swallowed hard. There were two things that could happenimmediately if I went for it. Penny might slap me and kick me out. Or… My eyeslanded on her lips. Or she might kiss me back.
Chapter 3
Thursday
I leaned forward, my eyes glued to her lips. Every thoughtswirling through my mind was telling me to stop.
Penny’s eyes grew round.
But I didn’t stop. Because my heart didn’t agree with myhead. It was broken, and I just needed one night to help heal it. I was sotired of feeling fucking broken.
But I didn’t get a chance to find out if kissing Penny wouldnumb my pain. Because she removed her hand from my arm like she knew exactlywhat I was thinking. She quickly wiped the side of her mouth, as if I’d beenstaring at her because there was something there. And not because I wanted tokiss her senseless.
“Is there something on my face?” she asked, ignoring the factthat I was leaning even closer.
I swallowed hard, my thoughts still swirling with desire.
“Matt?”
I wasn’t even sure what her question had been. “Sorry, whatdid you say?”
She laughed. “Why do you keep looking at me like that? I havesomething on my face, don’t I?” She wiped the side of her mouth again. “I waseating ice cream earlier and I…” her voice trailed off as I reached out and ranmy thumb right beneath her lower lip.
She didn’t have anything on her face. But I’d use any excuseto touch her. “There,” I said, letting my fingers rest along her cheek for justa moment. “I got it.”
“Thank you.” She cleared her throat.
I reluctantly let my hand fall from her velvety skin. Shewasn’t mine to touch. But touching her made my heart feel like it was beatingbetter.
“So back to the app.” She looked down at her phone. “It’stime to find you someone to settle down with.”
Why the hell did I agree to this again? I didn’t wanther to download some stupid app. I just wanted to spend more time with her. Ididn’t want to fucking find the love of my life on some random dating app. I’dalready found that back in high school. And it had all been taken away from me.So I no longer believed in love. All I knew was that hanging out with Pennymade me feel better for some reason. I was doing this to spend time with her. Notto fall in love. Not to find someone to settle down with. That wasn’t in thecards for me. Ever.
I leaned away from her. If Penny knew how beautiful she was,she would have known I was about to kiss her rather than worrying aboutsomething invisible on her face. If she was mine, I’d let her know howbeautiful she was every day. Which her shitty husband was apparently neglectingto do.
“Give me a second to download the app,” she said. “And whilewe wait, you can tell me all about your ideal girl.”
I stared at her. I didn’t want to talk about this. “I don’thave a type.”
Penny rolled her eyes.
I loved when she did that. Like she was begging to be spanked.Stop. “Well, if you insist, I really like girls who roll their eyes atme.”
“I don’t think that’s an option,” she said as she looked upfrom the app.
I smiled at her.
And then she blushed and laughed awkwardly. “Stop making funof me.”
“I wasn’t making fun of you, Penny.” I couldn’t help it. Myeyes fell to her lips again.
She shook
